Society of St. Andrew
2008 Gleaning Project with
St. Augustine Food Not Bombs

To participate in the Gleaning Project, email

November 29th: Today PUSH members joined Sandi, Northeast Florida coordinator for the Society of St. Andrew, her sister, Jennifer, and Tyler, a college student here with his family for the holidays. We picked grapefruit from a private home in Ponte Vedre Beach. When we arrived, a neighbor provided Tyler with tangerines and grapefruit, already picked, from his trees. About 3 crates of citrus were provided to Food Not Bombs.

November 8th: Today P.U.S.H. and St. Augustine Food Not Bombs members traveled to Advent Luthern Church in Orange Park. Thrivent Financial for Lutherns and the Society of St. Andrew had a special "gleaning" project. An 18-wheeler full of yellow and green squash arrived from south Georgia. Thrivent Financial provided hundreds of volunteers and a forklift to unload the bins of squash and bag them. They also arranged for the truck. We delivered about 1800 pounds of squash to Food Not Bombs, some local charities and, ironically, organizations in Palatka and Pierson that feed hungry farmworkers.

May 31st: Today P.U.S.H. members were in Hastings gleaning red potatoes. We gathered about 250 pounds for St. Augustine Food Not Bombs.

April 19th: Today P.U.S.H. members gleaned about 150 pounds of St. Augustine Sweet Onions in Elkton which were distributed to St. Augustine Food Not Bombs and the I.M. Sulzbacher Center.

April 12th: Today  P.U.S.H. and Food Not Bombs members were in San Mateo picking pink grapefruit in a grove owned by Mr. Cecil Nelson. Mr. Nelson is a "family farmer", with 8 acres of citrus groves. He raises his citrus without the use chemical pesticides or fertilizers. However, he was told that he could not use the word "organic" unless he paid an annual fee and a percentage of his profits. He also explained the negative impact of "free trade" agreements, box stores and corporate farms on the small farmer - here and abroad. He sells his other citrus on Wednesday and Saturday at the Palatka Farmers Market. Tell your friends and neighbors who are looking for good fruit raised using organic methods and no pesticides.

On April 6th, members of P.U.S.H. joined local Food Not Bombs members in Hastings in our first gleaning project. The project was coordinated by the Society of St. Andrew's Florida Gleaning Network. A report from one of the participants:

It was a perfect, cool, cloudy morning to visit the "cabbage patch". Simple sawing blades and plenty of bending, lifting and hauling done by 4 1/2 people ages 20? to 60, yielded 2,225 lbs. of cabbage for some hungry folks to enjoy. Here comes the pun: "A slew of slaw for St. Augustine." Thanks to Food Not Bombs and P.U.S.H., not a bad haul for 2 hrs. in the field.....

- Carol "the 1/2 person" Green

The experience was rewarding and provided the participants some small idea of the condition under which 100's of thousands of people labor every day to provide us all with food. The weather was mild and recent rain in a field ready to be plowed under meant we had minimum exposure to pesticides and fertilizers. Although this may seem like a lot of cabbage, if we had been doing this for a living, we would not even have come close to minimum wage.

The cabbage was distributed to Food Not Bombs - St. Augustine, Food Not Bombs - Jacksonville, St. Francis House, the I.M. Sulzbacher Center, and some local churches.